Nowhere in the USA is there such heated debate about the Middle East conflict as at elite universities. Jewish students are afraid, police officers are patrolling, professors don’t know what else they can say. How could it get so far?
When Gabriel Levin goes home in the evening, he looks over his shoulder. Is there anyone there? Is someone lying in wait for him? He would like to be able to walk across campus without fear. “Right now it’s worse than in my entire life,” says the English literature student. Levin is 19 years old and Jewish. After Hamas’ terror against Israeli civilians on October 7, the number of anti-Semitic attacks at American universities skyrocketed, including at Cornell University. “Every Jew here is afraid,” says Levin. “Everyone.”